Don't Let Go
by cowgirlangel95
Summary: Maya had always buried her emotions towards one certain friend, until something happened one night that released her emotional barrier. A Maya/ Farkle fic requested by Fangirling08. Rated T for angst and thoughts of self harm


_**A/N: Fangirling08 requested a Maya/ Farkle fic (cause they'd be so cute together! :) ), and here it is! I was given a couple ideas, and I was originally going to go with one, but found a way to work in both ideas into this fic. I got real emotional writing this, and those that know me know that it's hard to get me to cry when reading a sad fic. So grab a box of tissues, and enjoy.**_

_***Note: Takes place at the end of the group's junior year of high school.**_

_**Disclaimer: Don't own anything**_

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><p>Maya sat in front of her computer screen, staring at blank document. She had a paper due in Mr. Matthews' history class on Monday, and nothing was coming to her mind. Sure, she had all weekend to complete it, but ever since she found out how competitive it is to get into a good art school, Maya tried to complete her homework to the best of her abilities, and as soon as she could.<p>

She closed the laptop and slumped in her chair. _Maybe I'm thinking too hard. Perhaps a walk will help._ Maya stood up and headed out the apartment door. There was no particular place Maya was headed, just anywhere to clear her mind.

After walking a few yards, Maya felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. She pulled it out and smiled when she saw it was from Riley. But when she opened the text, the smile disappeared and her stomach dropped.

**Meet me at the hospital…NOW!**

The hospital was about a block from where she was, so it was pointless to take the subway. Maya slid her phone back in her pocket and ran towards the hospital as fast as her legs would allow her. As she rounded the corner, Maya ran through several different scenarios of what could have happened, and all of them terrified her.

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><p>She burst through the hospital doors and saw them in the waiting room. Riley was wrapped in her boyfriend's jacket while her head rested on Lucas' shoulder, her eyes red and swollen. Lucas' face looked drained, as if a huge part of his life had been taken from him. Then it hit her. <em>Where is Farkle?<em>

Maya tried to ask her friends, but majority of the sentence got caught in her throat. All she was able to say was, "…F-Farkle?"

Riley looked up and tried to answer, but her body shook with more sobs.

"He's been in an accident," Lucas answered, his voice sounding like he swallowed sandpaper.

Maya stood there frozen. _No, no, no how can this be happening?_ She squeezed her eyes shut, hoping this was all a dream, and when she opened her eyes she would be in her room staring at the ceiling. But when Maya opened her eyes, she, Riley, and Lucas were still in the waiting room.

"What happened, how did he get into an accident?" Maya asked, trying to keep a tight lid on her emotions.

"Drunk driver…hit him…on the bridge," Riley answered in between sobs

Lucas wrapped his arms around Riley and kissed the top of her head. He wanted to do more to comfort her, but it was hard to comfort someone when you were grieving as well.

"Do you know anything else?"

Both of her friends shook their heads in unison. "We got here as soon as we heard, and we texted you as soon as we got here," Lucas replied. "He's been in there a while now."

The trio of friends fell silent as they waited to hear anything on their friend. About a half hour later, Farkle's father, Stuart Minkus, came out to the waiting room. Maya, Riley, and Lucas walked over to see him, but they knew whatever news he had wasn't good. Tears brimmed Minkus' eyes, threatening to spill over.

"The doctors have done everything they can for him," Minkus began, trying to keep his voice steady. "He has a slim chance of survival."

Another long silence fell over the group. None of the teenagers could imagine their life without Farkle, and they didn't want to have to live it.

"Can we see him?" Lucas asked.

Minkus nodded and led them all to Farkle's room. Riley and Lucas stepped inside, but Maya didn't follow.

"Aren't you coming?" asked Riley.

Maya took a moment to respond, but finally shook her head. "If you don't mind, I wanna be alone when I see him."

Riley nodded and closed the door behind her. Maya leaned up against the wall and slid down into a sitting position. Despite never needing one herself, Maya hated hospitals. The awkward silence of it always sent a shiver down her spine.

Maya heard something like someone's breathing hitch. She looked up and saw Minkus, finally not able to control the tears. Maya wanted to say something to help comfort him, but she didn't know what to say. She wanted to say something positive about the situation, but she didn't know if Farkle would pull through despite the doctor's grim outlook. That and she didn't really know Stuart Minkus all that well. They had met a handful of times in the past, but they never really sat down and talked like she did with Mr. and Mrs. Matthews.

After a while, Riley and Lucas came out, looking worse than they did when they went in.

Minkus quickly wiped his eyes. "We'll be in the waiting room if you need us, Maya," he said, leading the other two friends down the hall.

Maya stood up and faced the door. Her stomach was churning with nerves. She took a deep breath and finally entered the room. No matter what she did, Maya was not prepared for what she saw.

Farkle was a shade paler than he usually was. His lanky frame was battered, bruised, and had small cuts all over. Half of his face was covered with a bandage, presumably from surgery earlier. Maya hated to imagine the damage that she couldn't see. He was connected to several monitors that beeped and indicated that he was still alive, for now. Maya walked closer to the bed. She looked at the oxygen tank beside him. Her eyes watered when she realized he wasn't breathing on his own.

Seeing him at his worst made Maya's heart swell. But then again, so did Farkle seeing her at her worst several years ago.

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><p><em>For the longest time, Maya had wondered why her parents ended up splitting. And now that she knew, she wished she never found out the answer.<em>

_Earlier that afternoon, Maya had been walking home from the Matthews' apartment. Now that it was summer time, she didn't have to worry about school, and she was grateful for that. Eighth grade didn't start for another month, and she was looking forward to enjoying the rest of her summer._

_Maya was about to open the door to her and her mother's apartment when she heard voices coming from inside. One was her mom, Katy. The other, she couldn't place. Maya opened the door and saw her mom talking to a man about Katy's age. She recognized him from older photos._

_Travis Hart. Maya's father._

_Travis glared at Maya when she entered. "I thought you said she wasn't going to be here."_

"_Travis…please."_

_Maya felt her heart sink. "I-I'm sorry, I had to grab something," she said quietly as she made her way to her room._

_Once inside her room, Travis began to talk again._

"_Why did you even keep her?"_

"_Because she's my daughter, why else?"_

"_You should have had that abortion when you had the chance! She's nothing but a burden on you, on me, and on others! But no, you wanted to keep her to see if she could help us come back together, which didn't work anyway. And now look at you."_

_Maya's jaw dropped as her eyes filled with tears as she heard Travis say other things about her that she didn't want to repeat. Maya opened her window, climbed down the fire escape, and took off to her thinking place. The bridge that led to a park nearby._

_OoOoO_

_Maya hugged her knees close to her chest and sobbed. _Does everyone see me as a burden? _she wondered. She never tried in Mr. Matthews' class, despite his several efforts for her to do otherwise. She always got Riley into trouble, and she did nothing but tease Lucas. If she asked Riley if she was a burden, Riley would deny it. _But then again…Riley's biased.

_She looked at the reflection of the moon in the small manmade stream that she sat in front of. Maya lowered her hands onto the pebbles she sat on, and found a sharper stone. She picked the stone up and held it in her hand. There were a couple times where she had thought about cutting, thanks to Missy, but had managed not to._

_The thought of cutting was soon pushed out of her mind when she heard someone off in the distance, coming closer to her location. Maya clenched the stone in her hand and shuffled into the shadows, hoping whoever it was wouldn't find her._

_But that hope was obliterated when she saw Farkle peek underneath the bridge._

"_Maya! There you are. Riley's been worried sick!"_

_Maya faced away from the nerd and didn't say anything. Farkle shuffled over to where Maya was sitting and plopped down beside her._

"_Are you okay?"_

_Maya wiped her nose. "Yeah, I'm fine," she lied._

_Farkle crossed his arms. "Come on, Maya. Tell me what's wrong."_

"_Why do you care?!" she shrieked._

_Farkle's eyes drifted to Maya's hand, which was tightly wrapped around something. "What do you have there?" he asked, reaching for her hand._

"_Nothing," she lied again, trying to move her hand of Farkle's reach, but he was too fast._

_He opened her hand and saw the stone. "Good thing you found this, someone really could have gotten hurt from it," he replied, taking the stone from her hand and tossing it into the stream. Maya couldn't tell if Farkle was implying that he knew what she was thinking about doing, but didn't bother to ask._

"_Look," he began. "I get it if you don't want to tell me what's bothering you. It's your business. But I want you to know that no matter what, I'm always here for you."_

_The dam that had been holding back Maya's emotions had just burst. The tears steadily flowed down her cheeks and her body shook. She leaned against Farkle's shoulder, and he wrapped his arms around her._

"_It's okay, Maya. Everything is going to be alright."_

_Maya shook her head. "I'm such a burden."_

_Farkle raised an eyebrow. "Says who?"_

"_My father…he didn't want me. That's why I never see him. I'm a burden on him, on my mom, Mr. Matthews, EVERYONE!"_

_Farkle rubbed his thumb over Maya's hand, sending what felt like electricity coursing through Maya's body. "Maya, don't you think we would have somehow let you know if you're a burden on us?"_

_He felt Maya shrug._

"_Believe me, we wouldn't be friends if you were a burden. We all love you…I love you."_

_The way Farkle said "I love you", was different than all the other times he had in the past, it was as if he _really_ meant it. Not that he hadn't meant it before, but it still sounded different. It made Maya's heart swell. It made her scared._

"_Did you mean it when you said that you'd always be there for me?"_

_Farkle nodded. "Always."_

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><p>Maya stood at the edge of Farkle's bed. Tears began to move down her face and fell onto the edge of the hospital bed.<p>

"Farkle," she whispered. "Come on, Farkle. Please wake up."

The only sounds that were made were from the heart monitor.

She brought a chair closer to the bed and sat down. "Come on, Farkle…you said you'd always be there for me," she said, choking back sobs. "I'm still holding you to that. You can't break your promise Farkle. Don't do this to me! Don't do this…to us," she mumbled. She did it. For the first time since Farkle started chasing her, she finally admitted the feelings she had been trying to hide from herself when Farkle found her hiding that one summer, and it had to be at a time where she could lose him forever. "Please, don't let go."

Maya looked up at the ceiling. "Look," she stated loudly. "I know You care about me! You've proven that to me several times throughout the past several years, despite me wanting to think that You never did! I know this may sound selfish, but please don't take Farkle away from me! Not yet! Yes, I have Riley and Lucas. They're great friends. But I've never felt about this towards anyone before. And now I may lose him, and I don't think I can take that! I've been able to talk to him about things I couldn't tell Riley. I need him!" she yelled, the tears flowing rapidly now.

"I need him…"

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><p>It had been an hour since Maya went in to see Farkle, and Minkus was getting worried. Both Riley and Lucas had fallen asleep in their chairs, so Minkus went to go check on Maya by himself. He opened the door and saw Maya with her head on the bed, her hand holding onto his, and her eyes closed.<p>

Minkus closed the door quietly and headed back to the waiting room. He didn't have the heart to wake Maya up, and she deserved to be with Farkle, especially now that he knew the reason why she wanted to be alone with him.

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><p>Maya woke up with a stiff neck. She slowly lifted her head and remembered where she was as she looked at Farkle. Maya tried to take her hand out from underneath Farkle's, but it wouldn't slip out from underneath his. She looked down at her hand, and saw that Farkle's fingers were curled around her hand. Maya let out a gasp.<p>

"Farkle?"

She heard Farkle take a deep breath, and saw his eyes move underneath his eyelids. "Come on…wake up. You know you want to."

Farkle's eye lids fluttered open as one of the nurses walked into the room to check his vitals. She saw the action and rushed over to the bed. "Miss, I'm going to have to ask you to leave," the nurse said as she buzzed the doctor.

Maya nodded and rushed out to the waiting room with tears of happiness spilling from her eyes. She skidded in front of Minkus, Riley, and Lucas with the biggest smile on her face, eager to tell all of them the good news.

Once she told everyone the good news, they all shared a group hug, thankful for what had happened.

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><p>It wasn't until the next day that Maya could visit Farkle again, but when she did, he looked a lot better than he had the other night.<p>

"Hey," she said, entering the room.

"Hey," he replied.

Maya pulled up a chair and smiled. It pleased her that Farkle was now off the respirator.

"How ya doin'?"

"I feel like I've been hit by a car," Farkle joked.

Maya laughed. "That's because you have."

There was a moment of silence before Farkle asked, "Maya, the other night, were you saying something?"

Maya looked at her hands. "Yeah. When I realized that you may not wake up, it made me think about some decisions I made. And they were some stupid decisions. I didn't want to lose you. I wanted you to keep your promise that you would always be there for me…for us."

"You mean that?"

Maya took ahold of his hand and squeezed it gently. "Yeah, I do."

_**A/N #2: I hope that was good for you Maya/ Farkle shippers, and no one got too OOC. I know I left out Farkle's mother, but the only reason why is because I don't know anything about her character. And I have no clue if Maya's dad's name is Travis; I just used the name for the story. Let me know what you think by leaving me a comment on the way out. Hope you enjoyed it! ~cowgirlangel95**_


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